2014-06-23 10 EU countries think Smart Meters aren’t worth the money

1) EU finds that Smart Meters are Poor Value

2) Do you have an Itron C1SR meter – tell us

We are trying to get a handle on how long some of the meters have been around. Thank you everybody for telling me about the C1S. I think I’ve received enough about those to know that they are old enough for Hydro to consider them “legacy” – some have been around for 8-9 years. So far 3 responses re. CN1S, one going back 5-6 years.

Now C1SR could you please let ted@parsecsystems.com know if you have one and where you live (just name of town or area)?

3) Ontario Hydro One is as bad or worse than BC Hydro

Ontario’s ombudsman has rec’d nearly 8000 complaints about Hydro One. I bet we have more complaints than that.

I am an intervener in the BCUC examination of the BC Hydro Meter Choices Program.

I support the position of Professor Splogliarch that a review of BCUC’s findings and decision is needed because significant and relevant factors were unknown to or overlooked by BCUC in its decision to approve BC Hydro’s fee structure with minimal adjustments.

The most outstanding omission was the absence of an independent audit of BC Hydro’s submission of the costs of permitting hydro users to retain their analogue meters. Professor Spogliarich provided a detailed summary of fees of other electric utilities in North America. BC Hydro provides no explanation why the fees it is charging are egregiously in excess of all other utilities in N. America.

In addition I submit the following: my water meter is read and maintained for $15 every 4 Months by the municipality of Saanich.

If BC Hydro were as efficient as the municipality in reading my meter, the BC Hydro charge would be $3.15 per month Maximum because the $15 covers maintenance as well!

If BC Hydro’s inefficiency was applied to reading my water meter, the municipal charge for solely reading my meter would be in excess of $130 per billing.

You can imagine the taxpayer outrage if that were to occur!

But because BC Hydro is a monopoly and is not accountable to users, it appears to be using it’s position to force many hydro customers to submit to the smart meter program because the fees for retaining analogue meters are prohibitive. Professor Spogliarich points out the BC government admitted the BC Hydro fee structure does force many hydro customer to accept a smart meter!

Supporting the position the BC Hydro fee structure is at least in part a tactic to pressure hydro users into a smart meter has been the relentless pressure by BC Hydro on me to submit to a smart meter:

numerous letters, phone calls, refusal to answer questions, refusal to set up appointments, Corix (Hydro representative) arriving unannounced with a smart meter in his hand ready for installation and without a mechanical analogue meter despite my repeated notice and statements to BC Hydro I will not accept a smart meter and a blackmail charge of $65.00 because I would not allow him to install a smart meter.

The BC Hydro fee, the highest in North American and more than 10 times the municipal charge for reading my water meter, must be justified by an independent audit; or the conclusion has to be the fees are a tactic to force users to accept a smart meter against their wishes.

Accordingly the BC Hydro fee structure has little to do with the cost of having to maintain an analogue meter. The BCUC failed to investigate the aberrant BC Hydro fee structure and erred in approving a fee structure that appears to have been designed to force smart meters on hydro users.

In my opinion this is a prima facie case to request the BCUC review its decision under Sections 99 and 100 of the Utilities Commission Act: The commission has made an error in fact, and a material factor has been excluded from evidence rendering the BCUC decision to be in error.

I am an intervener registered in 2013 with the BCUC. I was not notified of the Application for Reconsideration.

However, my comments follow:

The Government of BC is responsible for the Health of its citizens through the Ministry of Health.

The Government of BC has put regulatory bodies in place to protect the Public from Corporations such as BC Hydro, BC Gas and ICBC.
Giving an exemption to any of these organizations makes the regulatory agency ineffective and is self defeating.
The passing of laws to exempt certain equipment is directly affecting the Health and Welfare of the Citizens as the Minister of Health had no input.

The BC Government exempted Smart Meters from all regulatory bodies (including the Canadian Standards Association) and were to be installed by untrained technicians without turning the power off.
This practice removed any CSA approval of an individual’s private property, the meter base.
This is an illegal practice and could have dire consequences with the Insurance Industry.
To date, BC Hydro has accepted no responsibility for their actions.

———

From BCUC:
The BC Utilities Commission is an independent regulatory agency of the Provincial Government that operates under and administers the Utilities Commission Act.
The Commission’s primary responsibility is the regulation of British Columbia’s natural gas and electricity utilities.
BCUC also regulates intra­provincial pipelines and universal compulsory automobile insurance.

Accordingly, BCUC can only provide information to me regarding BC Hydro’s smart meter program.
The Commission has not been involved in the planning or implementation of the smart meter program. This is because of the Clean Energy Act. Section 7 of the Clean Energy Act exempts
BC Hydro’s Smart Metering Program from Commission regulation under certain sections of the Utilities Commission Act – the Act that establishes the Commission’s authority. Subsection 7(3) further states,
“The commission must not exercise a power under the Utilities Commission Act in a way that would directly or indirectly prevent the authority from doing anything referred to in subsection (1).”

Therefore the BC Government has removed any regulatory power held by the BCUC in its very direct responsibility to regulate a utility.

Therefore a Government has removed a Human Right from me
and according to the Canadian Human Rights Council, a Government can be taken to court for this.
———
On Nov 16, 2013 I again wrote to BCUC the following:

“I want to reiterate that I am saving $555.00 for BC Hydro to not have a smart meter installed at my house.
Since the analog meter that I have is paid for in my utility bill, and the proposed smart meter is included in my utility bill, why would I or should I pay an “opt-out” fee to refuse to have a potentially dangerous device not installed on my home.

As for the monthly fees, both for opting out and also for meter reading, I say again that my previous bills included a fee for reading the meter and for having a meter attached to my home.”

As per the above, Prof. Splogliarich amply demonstrates that significant and relevant factors were overlooked by the BCUC in its decision to approve BC Hydro’s fee structure with only negligible adjustments.
Perhaps the most important shortcoming in BCUC’s considerations was the lack of an independent audit of BCH’s cost accounting for having to maintain a program allowing customers to retain their analogue meters. Prof. Spogliarich has presented a clear and detailed summary of fees levied by electric utilities across North America, which reveals that nowhere are fees so onerous as those of BCH. There has been no explanation for this discrepancy, which surely calls into question the means used by BCH to determine its fee structure.
As he also pointed out, the BC government admitted that these high fees would have the effect of forcing large numbers of customers to acquiesce to BCH’s smart meter program simply because for many the fees for retaining analogues would be prohibitive. At the very least, this implies that part of the reason for the highest fees in North America was to deter customers from refusing smart meters, which has nothing to do with the true costs of having to maintain an analogue contingent among customers. The BCUC failed to investigate this aberration, and erred in approving a fee structure that appears to have been largely designed to force people to accept smart meters against their wishes.
In my view, this presents a prima facie case to request that the BCUC review its decision as per Sections 99 and 100 of the Utilities Commission Act: the Commission has made an error in fact, and a basic principle has not been raised.

On Sept 25, 2013 the Province of BC Passed an OIC # 391 signed by Bill Bennett and approved by Judith Guichon, Lieutenant Governor that told BC Utilities Commission to accept whatever BC Hydro proposed, making whatever objections put forth by the General Population unacceptable.

This again is a removal of an existing Human Right by a Government and can be taken to Court according to the Canadian Human Rights Council.